Make A Marketing Plan for Musicians

Marketing Musicians:

Without a marketing plan for your concerts or gigs, you’re losing money. You don’t need to know all about how to write a business plan, but some of the essence is inside the content of your marketing plan. Make one.

HOW TO MAKE A MARKETING PLAN IN A FEW STEPS

Yeah, I said basically. This works fine for a week, then you start losing direction and stop marketing. Back to square one…

When you make a marketing plan, make sure you don’t overcomplicate it. It does not have to be difficult. It sounds a lot worse than it is. You should do it yourself, because you want to concentrate on preparing for your concert, event or even a gig. It’s not necessary to spend any money on it. You have all the information and it’s all about spreading the word wide enough. No one is better for the job, than you.

You could of course contact someone to do the marketing for you, and I’m sure you will find someone doing a great job marketing themselves, using you and your event as a promotion for their own business. The business of promoting is about being seen and make new customers. They are of course interested in creating you a wonderful plan, but you still have to do the job. Instead of using a lot of time and effort in telling them what they need, you save a lot of time by doing it yourself. One more thing; you get more dedicated to make sure you get the audience you want and that your marketing will be a success.

THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NOW:

Find a piece of paper and a pencil (or pen) and write this down:

SET THE DATE, TIME and VENUE

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE

RELEASE A POST ON YOUR WEBSITE

SHARE THE POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Marketing takes time to be a success. You need to start at least 6 months ahead to get full effect of your marketing. It’s not too late if you start later, but you don’t reach as many people as you can. It is always a good idea to save all the information in one document. You may not see it now, but next time you make a marketing plan, you can use the first one as a template for the rest of them.

Keep writing on your piece of paper:

YOUR GOAL: DATE, TIME, VENUE

Contact the Venue, to make sure it’s ready for you. You can call them or send and e-mail. I would start with the e-mail, explaining what’s needed, when I want the concert to take place and ask for the price. Then I would call after a couple of days. This is a timesaver. Even if you didn’t get an answer on the e-mail, you refer to it in the phonecall. That is making the attention you need. Make sure that they book the venue properly, with a date, the time and what equipment you need them to take care of.

Did you send that e-mail?

It’s time to decide what to play (or decide exactly what to play).

WHO IS INTERESTED IN LISTENING TO THIS?

Maybe you don’t know that yet, if you do, that’s fine. Still you have to start talking about it. Literally, talk about it. You also have to make sure that the right people knows about it, so you use your website and your social media as well. This is also a part of your plan. Every time you make a marketing plan, you should create it so it suits your audience.

The more you know about your audience, the easier it is to talk about your project. Hopefully this is a project you look forward to, so it should not be a problem, anyway. Try to picture yourself who they are and imagine yourself talking to them, the next 6 months.

Now that you know who you’re talking to, let others know it by posting a blogpost on your website.

WHAT YOU WANT TO POST ON YOUR WEBSITE

Your website should be about you, your playing, your band, the people you collaborate with and all the aspects of the project you’re working on. You have to make sure that people WANT to be there. They don’t decide by themselves, you have to convince them (unless you are very, very famous).

Create at least one blogpost a week, the last six months. Don’t wait until the day you should have released it to find a topic. Make a list of all the possible variations you can make from the list above. The use of a website is essential in all kind of marketing. Include it seriously and planned into your marketing plan. According to your regular schedule, plan when you release your information and what you release. Set the dates and start taking notes.

DON’T FORGET THE LOCAL MEDIA

Search for local newspaper, radio stations and everyone that matters for your project. Send them the link of your website, so they are aware of what’s coming.

If you don’t have a website, create one. You need one. You’re a click away from finding one for free.

(now that you have a website, and you’ve started making it work for you, it’s time to work on your social media marketing)

EXCITINGLY SHARE YOUR GOOD NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Musicians and Social Media is not always a good match. If you have a problem with why you should use it, you should READ THIS ARTICLE

Tell all the people you know about what’s on, when and where. Give details about your engagement and what you do. Don’t be spammy, of course. You want them to get the information and make them curious on what you do.

Share your website and make them comment on it. Create an engagement of your project among your friends and fans.

What social media platform to use, depends on what you use. You should use the one or two you are used to, acting naturally and tell them about the project naturally. You want them to feel your excitement and you want them to talk about it. When they do, they make other people get interested as well. That is in your favor.

DON’T FORGET TO CONNECT TO THE LOCAL MEDIA

Make friends with journalists on social media. Find the ones interested in what you do, and they may even follow up with an interview. If they don’t offer them one. At least make sure they know about your site (website), where you regularly post interesting articles (blogposts) about the coming project.

REPEAT NUMBER 3 AND 4 FOR THE NEXT 6-12 MONTHS

Now you have a great start on your marketing plan. The problem is usually not to start it, but to do the follow-up.

Your piece of paper should now include a few steps you have to make to succeed. The follow-up sequence need a bit more time, but it will save you a lot of frustration and some time if you do it.

HERE IS WHAT TO DO:

Blogposts:decide the topic for every post until the project is finished. The first one should be about the whole project, and the last one how well it worked. The ones in the middle drop information that makes the audience to get there and bring a lot of friends.

Social Media:use the topics from the blogposts. Share the blogposts and comment regularly on the topics from the last post. Make sure you get your audience to connect and interact. Sometimes that’s the hard part, but keep informing, naturally, not spammy or mean. The closer you get to your event, the more you talk about it in the Social Media.

This way you make ONE plan on what to write about, and you spread the content several places. You will reach a lot of people, and the more you speak about it and get your friends, fans and others to interact with you, the more people you will see at your event/concert or gig.

SAVE TIME BY KEEPING ALL YOUR MARKETING FROM ONE PLATFORM

There are different platforms that can help you do your marketing easier. I use a platform about marketing, it’s called Wealthy Affiliate. It’s a platform containing all you need to learn about marketing, it’s cheap or free, your choice. The technical issues are made easier, there are great trainings on how to set up a website, how to make it rank on internet, how to spread the content on social media, how to interact with people, how to get traffic to your website and more. You are in contact with other marketers, living from their websites and the product they sell on them. Regular people succeeding online. You can READ MORE ABOUT IT HERE

Having one place to login to check on your website, build it and make it grow, as a basis of your online marketing, saves you a lot of time. As you get along the path you also learn how to be more effective in your planning. Another benefit is that you can use your content again and again.

By making ONE plan, taking care of all the aspects you need to consider, plotting dates for when to publish, what to publish, when to practise, when to make contact and who you should contact, you are on your way to make it a success, and in a relaxed way. You are in control of your marketing and you know what information you need to publish.

You are your business and your music your products. I know this might sound a little strange, but that’s a fact. (here’s an article on the subject). You should also have a business plan, but that’s another topic for another blogpost, not written yet, but keep looking back and you’ll find it. I’ll let you know.

Now you know everything you need to get started. I wish you luck!

TIME TO GET TO ACTION:

Set the right goals and make the deals

Find your audience

Get your website in action

make an overview, set the dates, portion the job

Spread it all over the social media

Don’t forget the local media. They want your content.

Always keep in mind that without a marketing plan for your events, you’re losing money. You don’t need to know all about how to write a business plan, but make sure that some of the essence is inside the content of your marketing plan.

I hope you found this article interesting, and that it will help you in the promotion of your music. You’re welcome to leave a comment on anything you found here and how you see you can use it. Leaving a comment on a website is of more value than most marketing musicians understand. That it’s valuable to other readers, is one thing, but you will also see other benefits from this activity. If you miss anything, please let us know. Marketing Musicians, (this website) want to reveal all you need and also give you ideas on where you can get what you need, safely, tested and approved. Thanks for your comments, and thank you for sharing 🙂

2 thoughts on “Make A Marketing Plan for Musicians”

Thank you so much for this great post full of tips and an explanation how to make a marketing plan for free. People often think they need to pay a lot of money to promote their projects, but it isn’t like that! Thanks a lot! I am going to use these tips when I get into my next theatre show.

It’s a pleasure to be helping out, that’s one of the things I like to do 🙂

There’s nothing wrong in paying people for doing a good job, but you still have to know what it’s all about. That’s one of the reasons why I focused on the free version of making a marketing plan. I know it also have one side effect, you get more efficient in preparation of your projects. It’s a great way to improve your focus on what you really want to do.

Happy to see you can use it. Please come back and tell us about your experience 🙂